


Awakened

by The3rdTrumpeteer



Category: The Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, F/M, Feelings, Pining, i'd say kind of a zelda character study, spoilers for captured memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-27
Updated: 2019-06-27
Packaged: 2020-05-20 16:18:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19380289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The3rdTrumpeteer/pseuds/The3rdTrumpeteer
Summary: She despises him. She trusts him. She's afraid to lose him.---An expansion of Zelda's thoughts concerning Link during the Captured Memories sequence.





	Awakened

She loves him.

Zelda finds herself unable to pinpoint the exact moment she had this realization, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Though she is loathe to admit it (at least at first), she loves Link. 

In the beginning, Zelda didn’t even like him. After all, not only was he the one "who would seal the darkness" and all that (which reminded her of every one of her failures), he was her appointed knight, tasked by her father to stay by her side at all times and… protect her? Irritate her? Honestly, it all felt the same after a while. 

The few times Zelda lost her composure and yelled at Link, he didn’t even blink. He seemed confused by her outbursts, which made her feel guilty for yelling at him in the first place. In her heart, she knew he didn’t deserve it, but he was the only one on whom she could unleash her frustrations, the only one who simply waited until she was done and then carried on like nothing had happened. In a way, it made Zelda feel… better. After a while, she begrudgingly accepted his constant companionship and even enjoyed it a little. Well, maybe more than a little. 

She loves him.

Quiet as he may be, Link still has a lot to say when Zelda manages to get him talking. He grew up training to be a knight like his father, and his father’s father. He has known Mipha since they were little (well, since Link was little, and Mipha was just learning to navigate young adulthood). He tells Zelda a few stories of the times he and Mipha spent together when his mother brought him to Zora’s Domain, and Zelda smiles as Link recounts his memories. 

He speaks with his hands as well as his tongue, and it is quite entertaining to watch him wave them about as he tells more exciting stories. Many of them include Mipha (and Zelda fights back that twinge of… well, she doesn’t want to call it jealousy… she feels every time the Zora girl is mentioned), and some include Link’s mother. He learned to cook from her, and remembers every recipe she taught him. He loves food (and cooks for Zelda often as they travel between springs), and everything he makes is quite good. He is also an excellent hunter. Neither of them go hungry during their travels.

She loves him.

Link listens, which is a rare thing in the kingdom these days, it seems. All Zelda’s father wants to do is talk and scold and constantly remind her that she is not trying hard enough, and it’s not like she can talk to anyone in the castle without knowing they’ll judge her. They’re already judging her. Zelda can feel their stares, can hear the whispers as she walks the halls of the castle, the whispers that just confirm what her father says. She is not trying hard enough to awaken her sealing magic. She will not be able to protect the kingdom should Calamity Ganon rise. She is dooming everyone. 

She tells Link these things after a while, late one night when they’re sitting by the fire at a stable on the way to Rito Village. It’s quieter outside, and Zelda likes looking up at the stars. It seems Link likes stargazing, too. He lies on his back and can’t seem to take his eyes off the sky. It’s then that Zelda sighs and decides to face her fears. She asks Link if she can talk to him, and he sits up and listens.

She loves him.

The trek down from the Spring of Wisdom is silent. Link does not try to speak to Zelda, only keeps one hand at her right elbow as they descend Mount Lanayru to catch her if she falls. Zelda wishes… so  _ much _ … that he would take her hand instead, but of course he doesn’t, and they make it down the mountain without incident. They see the other Champions waiting at the gate, and Zelda sighs, braces herself for sympathetic glances and hushed murmurs. What must they think of her, a daughter of Hyrule’s royal family who is unable to use sealing magic? She is a failure, and they know it. 

But when they reach the others, there is no whispering like that to which Zelda has grown accustomed. Instead, Urbosa speaks a few assurances, as does Daruk, and they leave it at that, and Zelda is grateful. Mipha (Zelda’s friend, Link’s… well, Zelda’s not sure) turns to her, and begins to speak, to give some words of advice, but then something terrible happens, and no one is prepared, and then the castle is shrouded in darkness, and the darkness is spreading so  _ quickly _ -

She loves him.

The other Champions have departed for their Divine Beasts, and Zelda and Link are hurrying toward Hyrule Castle, hoping to reach it in time. There is too much happening, and there’s fire everywhere, and it feels impossible to get through the gates, but they manage to reach the end of the moat. The guards who are usually stationed there are gone, and Zelda and Link are halfway across the bridge when Zelda feels something. A sharp pang in her chest accompanied by a scream that is both inside her head and surrounding her in the wind and flames, and then it is gone as quickly as it came, and then the Divine Beast Vah Medoh, which is flying overhead, turns a sickly shade of pink and sends a beam of red light toward the castle. 

Revali is gone, Zelda realizes in horror. Calamity Ganon has taken him. 

Link looks at the fallen Divine Beast with wide eyes before grabbing Zelda’s hand (something she may have blushed at before, but doesn’t even think about now) and dragging her back across the bridge. She resists at first, but then they’re back on the bank, and there’s another pang and another scream, and a red beam cuts the bridge in half before penetrating the castle walls. There’s no way in, now, and no way out.

They run back toward the woods, away from the castle. It’s beginning to the rain, and the droplets grow fat and obscure Zelda’s vision. She feels another pang, stronger this time, hears a scream that sounds unmistakably like Mipha’s, and the sound nearly brings her to her knees, but she stays on her feet and keeps running. And she doesn’t tell Link.

They’re back among the trees now, and that’s when Zelda feels a final pang and hears one last scream, and this time she does fall, and then Link’s kneeling beside her, and his face is full of concern and sadness, and Zelda loses it. The other Champions are gone. The Divine Beasts are lost. The castle is destroyed and the town is next. Her father is… Zelda finds she can no longer speak.

Link just holds her as she cries.

She loves him.

They’ve been running for hours now. It was Link’s idea to head for Kakariko Village, to get to Impa and figure things out from there. But the route is treacherous, the roads teeming with monsters and the fields with Guardians, and Link is a good fighter - a great one, even - but the journey is taking its toll on him. He is covered in cuts and bruises, and though he still grasps the Master Sword tightly in his right hand, his left hand is pressed against what Zelda fears are broken ribs. He can’t make it much farther.

They’re in Ash Swamp, and it was the wrong direction, and now they’re surrounded by Guardians. In a fury Zelda has only seen once near Eldin when they were surrounded in a similar fashion by monsters, Link takes out a number of Guardians with well-placed slashes to the eye before one’s metal leg catches him in the chest and sends him flying backwards. He lands at Zelda’s feet, and she begs him to run, to leave her. She cannot bear to see him die. 

But he doesn’t leave. Instead, he pushes himself up and stands unsteadily in front of her with his sword at the ready. A Guardian has spotted them, and it clambers of the sparking wreckage of its counterparts, and when it focuses its red targeting beam at Link, Zelda moves before she even realizes what she’s doing. All she knows is that she must protect her hero. She steps in front of him with a cry and holds her hand out and everything goes white-

She loves him.

All the Guardians in the swamp are dead, for lack of a better word, and all that remains of them now shuddering, sparking hunks of metal and gears. Zelda stares at her hand for a moment in awe. She’s done it, she’s finally done it. How…

There’s a thud behind her, and she turns around, and Link is on the ground, sword still clutched in his hand. Zelda drops to her knees and gathers his body in her lap, and it’s all she can do not to burst into tears. He can’t leave her, not now, and she tells him so, and he opens his eyes and stares at her for a moment. He opens his mouth to say something but coughs instead, and then his eyes close again, and his grip on the Master Sword loosens, and Zelda can feel the tears streaming down her face.

She loves him.

It’s the faint glow of the Master Sword that brings her back to reality. Link can still be saved, she realizes. When the two Sheikah arrive, it’s like Zelda’s prayers have been answered. She waves off their concerns, barks an order at them to get Link to the Shrine of Resurrection immediately because it’s their only chance to save him. She needs to get back to the castle and try to seal Ganon away, but there’s something she has to do first. 

The journey to the Lost Woods is easy. Zelda feels stronger now, and she has a mission, and she’s not going to let anything stand in her way. The Lost Woods are almost inviting, and getting to Korok Forest seems to only take a few minutes. Then she sees the Great Deku Tree, and the platform upon which she knows the Master Sword will rest for a hundred years, just like her Knight. She says a prayer and slides the sword into the stone. She knows she will see Link again. She knows they will win.

She loves him.

**Author's Note:**

> I've been playing a LOT of BOTW this summer.


End file.
